4 year old girl masturbating

[chery1]

My little girl has always had a very keen interest in her 'front bum' and taken many opportunities to rub herself on anything and everything as a toddler. i didnt worry, knowing it to be perfectly normal.
unfortunately shes still doing it and in public - she rubs herself even at meal times and in school.

please can someone tell me if this is common and how to cope with it.

so far i have told her only to do it when she is in bed on her own and not with others around - doesnt seem to have any effect. sometimes she does it so much she makes herself sore.

Hi twistedficus
All I can suggest is distraction my dd1 just turned 4 has been doing something similar since she was about 10months old. It is always when she is sitting on the floor she rocks herself and her front bottom back and forward. Initially when it started my concern around it was because she was rocking back and forth which had alarm bells going for me but tbh everyone said she was fine and was just self soothing. She mainly does it when watching tv or feeling a tired or something and I think she is just self soothing, dd2 sucks her thumb and dd1 does this. I know that most of the time she doesn't even realise she is doing it, it has become a complete habit. We distract her from it when she is doing it but never tell her it is wrong or to stop (mil does which drives me mad). I have been to Hv and gp about it and they were not concerned in the slightest and said do distract her from it or ignore it. She has done it in pre-school a bit but again they just distract and they say they feel she does it when she is tired.

My dd1 will be starting school in a year but tbh I have seen her do it less and less as she has got older so I am pretty confident she will have stopped it altogether soon enough.
Not much help for you sorry but I think distraction is the key but not to make her feel what she is doing is wrong